Been told that DD needs to lose weight and don't know where to start.

[wintersweet1977]

Hi, My DD is Very Overweight. She is a heart patient (open heart surgery when 2 weeks old) and the cardiac Drs kept telling me to feed her up (she was on the 2nd centile for weight) until she was 4 when she suddenly ballooned.

For the last two years they have told me she needs to lose weight, which I agree with. The issue is that she never stops moving and I don't think she eats too much, she has a cereal for breakfast, fruit snack mid morning, school dinner, packet of crisp on the way home from school and a home cooked tea every night(one of my children has severe allergies). They have pudding after tea about three times a week. She gets her 5 a day most days. My exhusband feeds them crap when they are there but they only go less than once a week and will generally have McDonalds for every meal. I have tried to get him to change this but he wont.

Two of my five children are overweight.

We don't get out a lot because I have two children with autism and it isn't safe to take them out most of the time. I'm an only parent.

As I said before though she never stops moving, if she isn't chasing her brothers around she is pushing her pram round the garden, dancing, jumping, twirling around etc and when she does sit to watch telly she's up and down like a yoyo or bouncing on the yoga/peanut balls we have so the only time she's actually still is when she's asleep. It exhausts me just to watch her!

We've been referred to the dietician who looked at her diet and suggested we cut down on dairy as she was drinking too much milk. So she's only had 3 portions of dairy a day for the last six month and she hasn't lost any weight. I asked the dietician for information about portion sizes but she had very little to offer, she gave me a sheet on meat portions for girls/women but that didn't cover carbs/dairy/fruit and veg etc. We're due back there in a couple of weeks.

I wonder if there could be an underlying cause of the weight, my mother has a problem with her thyroid, which I believe can be hereditary, my daughter is very hairy, she has a very fat tummy but isn't particularly fat anywhere else, she is 6 but is very tall, she has very broad shoulders and is the tallest in her class. I don't know if these are connected to the thyroid or anything else.

Can anyone suggest something I can do to help her lose weight?

Is there a junior parkrun near you? Running is a really cheap but good way of exercising! You could run/walk with the children. ..

I would drop the cordial, no cordial is good and the fruit juice, have just water and milk, hot chocolate should go too all very full of either sugar or sweeteners.

I have sweet peppers/cucumbersticks/cherry tomatoes and small amounts of cheese for in the car after school. Much better than crisps or carbs. Also almonds and an apple is a good snack.

Use blueberries and strawberries for desserts with greek yoghurt.

Good luck

Weigh all ingrediants so you know exactly how many calories you’re giving her. ‘Healthy and homemade’ is still unhealthy if you’re giving too much.

For snacks: very green pears ( William or conference) resist the heat of a car very well.
Could you possibly have an ice box in the boot of you car or a flask? Cherry tomatoes especially Roma type are really nice as a snack.
I would remove the crisps as they are highly addictive and highly processed. Have you tried to do kale chips. Very easy, there are tons of recipes online or chickpeas roasted. Drain a can, shake, put in bowl, add smocked paprika or smoke flavour, a bit of soy sauce and put in the oven for 15 min.

I would remove all the industrial stuff and go high in fresh food.
Home made dinners are no indication of healthy. My lasagna, loaded in white sauce, cheese and bolognese is a caloric bomb.

Go basics. A chicken breast coated in mixed herbs, pepper and just cooked not fried in a pan or oven.
Add two veggies at each meal, one cooked one raw. A nice sliced tomatoes salad with crystal salt, chopped parsley, olive oil, onion if they like it, and if you add to it a hard- boiled egg, a can of tuna or a can of chickpeas you have a meal.
A good quality steak with a nice green lettuce with a homemade vinaigrette so no sugar in sauces.’
I follow a plant based diet, my kids and family don’t, we all eat the same veggie and salads, I just cook a piece of meat or fish for them or two soft boiled eggs with soldiers and they have celery salad, broccoli, braised carrots with them.
Avoid food with sweeteners, it has been proved they make you gain weight .

As PPs have said, berries are a very nice snack.
Go simpler, aim for fresh, add lots of colours to your table
Use the oven.put zucchini slices and leeks under the grill with only a bit a salt and olive oil.
Eating more vegetables will also alter the but bacteria and help her overall health

Also switching crisps for the lentil curls, pea crisps or quinoa crisps is much healthier. They are actually quite nice despite sounding vile!

I think you'll find it quite an eye opener if you actually measure and log what she's eating and drinking for a few days. Use MyFitnessPal to track it, you'll probably be shocked at how much it all adds up to and it'll make it easy to see where the "culprits" are.

Your evening meals are very carb heavy and you don’t need it at the time. Stick to protein and veg and cut out the crisps even if they complain. As others have said, they will be having pudding at school so don’t need one at home.

If you google ‘Eating well for 5-11 year olds’ there is a really good document online with example menus, photos of portion sizes, calorie requirements for different ages etc.

Also, re not like wholewheat rice and pasta - can you start mixing them so you serve pasta that is 3/4 white with 1/4 brown and gradually increase the proportions.